From dispatches
NEW DELHE: The Janata Dal on Saturday demonstrated in a dramatic fashion how the electronic voting Machines that the Government planned to introduce in 150 sensitive constituencies in the coming general elections could be manipulated.
At a press conference here, a computer expert, Mr. Arun Mehta, demonstrated how a machine could be “programmed to rig an election”, or as an exuberant Mr. V. P. Singh put it “carry out a 21st century high jacking of democracy”.
Mr. Mehta showed three programs to illustrate how software could be written with a bias towards one particular candidate. In the first, most votes cast after a preselected “Trojan number” of votes were credited to one candidate, even though they were noting his favor. In the second, the can didate who got the majority of the first ten votes, got most of the rest as well. The candidate had only to ensure that his voters were first in the queue, Mr. Mehta said. In the third program, a secret code was keyed in after a point, which credited most of the subsequent votes to one candidate.
The expert did agree, however, that his programmers, carried out with only candidates, were merely simple examples of what could be done. Far more sophisticated programmers would have to be devised to take into consideration the varying number of candidates, number of voters and other differences between each constituency. He maintained, however, that the possibilities were “as limitless as the imagination itself.”
The point was promptly seized by the Janata Dal president, Mr. V.P. Singh and the convener of the party’s campaign committee, Mr. George Fernandes. Confidence, Mr. Singh said, was an important ingredient of the electoral process, and the scope for manipulation combined with the Government’s Past record, had aroused the “gravest suspicion” that the machines would be used for subverting the electoral process. Opposition par ties had not been consulted in the matter, he pointed out.
Mr. Fernandes stressed the fact that even Japan, the country that had made the greatest strides in electronics, had decided against the use of the machines.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 3, 1989
